Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
Yesterday, Democratic U.S. House candidate John Lewis released a five-point plan (PDF) to clean up Congress (and win votes in Montana). Among them, an ill-advised attack on Congressional pay and pensions:
END GOLD-PLATED PENSIONS, ENACT 10% PAY CUT
Members of Congress voted themselves better pension benefits the majority of the people they represent. If elected, Lewis will support legislation to eliminate the Congressional pension program. Since 2001, members of Congress have voted themselves seven pay increases. Yet, in the last three decades, most Americans have not seen a significant increase in earnings. In the face of a $17 trillion federal debt, it’s time for Congress to do its part by enacting an immediate 10 percent pay cut and ending gold-plated pensions.
Congressional pensions are prophylactics against corruption. Eliminating them would do nothing to improve pensions for the rest of us — but would create every incentive for a Congressman to legislate in a way that ensures a lucrative post Congressional career with a deep-pocketed entity that benefited from his votes in Congress.
Lewis harms rather than helps with this pandering to popular contempt for Congress. In my judgment, his C.L.E.A.N. Platform verges on demagoguery and throws punches at straw men.
Montana’s voters want to know what Lewis will do in Congress that helps them, not what he will do to Congress.